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The soccer coach
There was something palpably different about her the first minute I was around her. Her introductory email with the tagline of a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “For every minute you are angry you...
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Two faces of shame
Update on last blog, The soccer coach. Saturday, this well coached team won their first game. It was a genuine celebration mixed in with a message that “winning is not all important”. Experiencing this...
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One day post Boston bomb
It is always tricky and confusing for me to get on facebook after a national or international disaster. The Newtown school shootings and now the bombings at the Boston Marathon are happenings that slow...
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We never know the backstory
Public encounters with strangers or people we don’t know well can be fraught with misunderstanding and judgments. The reality is that each person in any encounter comes to that moment with a story, a...
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Preparing to go back
Ever since our girls came home in 2004 and 2005, I have wondered, worried, fantasized and dreamed of what it would be like to take them back to their country and culture of birth. Our two adoption...
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The field trip that almost wasn’t
Much planning and preparation went into this big day. A 4th grade field trip to the coast including a cool aquarium, lunch on the beach and exploring a WWII battleship. Our 10 year old daughter is a...
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Positive intent and the Target clerk
She and her sour look are almost always there when I enter the store. I wonder what has or is going on in the life of someone who presents such hardness and grouchiness toward customers. Once when...
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When tornadoes hit
My first clue that something happened was a facebook status that said “praying for Oklahoma”. My heart and mind jumped to natural and man-made disasters – which would it be this time? I quickly...
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Quiet and loud
“Some coped with their times of fear and worry by becoming awfully quiet. Some would become noisy.” from Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry Being parent to children who express emotion on the radical ends of...
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Mentionable is manageable
As the time fast approaches for us to travel back to the country of our daughters’ birth, emotions are high and varied. The end of the school year is always a time of intense and mixed emotions, and...
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Back and still alive
Dear blog readers, I do not want you to think that I dropped off of the planet. We returned this past weekend from our amazing trip to China and so enjoyed exploring the land and places of our...
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The breaking and making of ties
Our recent journey back to China with our daughters was amazing in almost every way. Sorting through the experience has been somewhat challenging – maybe putting so much focus, energy, attention and...
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In listening mode
The blogging thoughts and words have been scarce lately. Summer is rolling along and we are enjoying time at the pool, mountains and looking forward to a whole family, long weekend at the beach....
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Alphabet soup
Kids are back in school today, mom sanity is slowly reappearing and I hope to be a more prolific blogger in days to come. I think I will start here… As a participant as well as friend, acquaintance...
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Dropping the masks
One of the greatest gifts of parenting children from hard places is the invitation, and often a mandatory kind of invite, to enter into real, true and messy humanity. A bit of back story. Some of the...
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Adoption nightmares
When there is an issue in the adoption world that is getting ready to rumble up to the surface and explode, my first clue almost always comes on facebook. That happened yesterday as the recent NBC...
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Shame busters
She herself lived in a neglectful home until 15 months, bounced around to several foster homes and then landed in an ill prepared adoptive home at age 7 ½ years of age. Many years later, she is a...
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Some of us write better than we talk
I certainly relate to the title of this blog. It is one of the many reasons that I participate in this activity and shy away from public speaking. Verbal expression is sometimes awkward, uncomfortable...
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The coaching zone
She had longed for, dreamed of and planned how to make it happen for months. It had lots of pockets, pouches and zippers and was one of her favorite colors – camo green. This Bible cover was “it”....
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A glance back
“I’ve taken your advice and only check facebook once a day” she said to me. My heart lurched a bit. Even though my friend and blog reader had read my words on this topic and taken them to heart, I...
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